Find the Hat
by AuthenticAussie
Summary: Sabo tried to yank his wrist out of Ace's tight grip, digging his heels into the corridor and latching onto door frames as Ace practically steam rolled them through the dorm, "Can I at least put on pants?"


**AN: Present for thelonelyquartet to congratulate her on graduating! ^u^**

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><p>"I'm <em>not<em> crazy. There's really a ghost in the library! _HE ASKED FOR PIZZA._"

Sabo gave him a pursed lipped look of concern, his brow just furrowed in a way that Ace had seen many times before; when the blond wanted to put his hand on Ace's forehead to check he wasn't running a fever, or grab his bag to double check that Ace hadn't accidently somehow gotten high off his narcoleptic medicine. Ace felt a sulky pout pull his own lips into a frown, but forced himself to cross his arms and look foul instead, trying to convince his brother-in-all-but-blood to believe him.

"Ace," Sabo started carefully, placating tone setting off more than a few loudly ringing alarm bells in the college student's head, and he groaned heavily, rolling his entire head to show his displeasure.

"You know what," Ace snapped, grabbing Sabo and pulling his brother after him, regardless of the photography student's yelp, "You can come say hello for the first time in what-the-hell ever because _I am not dealing with the paranormal at three am._"

Sabo tried to yank his wrist out of Ace's tight grip, digging his heels into the corridor and latching onto door frames as Ace practically steam rolled them through the dorm, "Can I at least put on pants!?"

Ace paused, pursing his lips as he glanced back at his brother, debating, but he requited and sighed, releasing the blond. "_Fine,_" he grumbled, crossing his arms and tapping his foot impatiently against the floor. "But hurry up."

Five minutes and one pair of pants later, the two of them were crossing the large courtyard that led to the university's library, Sabo making irritated noises under his breath and rubbing at his arms, breath puffing the air in front of him. "You're ridiculous," Sabo groused, shooting him a glare that Ace easily brushed off, the dark-haired student more preoccupied with carefully pushing open the library door and glancing inside, "And a dick," Sabo continued, when it became obvious that he wasn't paying attention, though he did follow Ace dutifully. "A horrible, awful, horrible dick of a person."

"Who, Ace? Ace is great! He bought cookies!"

Ace almost jumped again, though he was more prepared than he'd been the first time Luffy showed up, poking his head through the bookshelf and scaring half his life span away, but Sabo didn't even appear to notice that Luffy was floating, still angrily insulting Ace.

"I don't care if he bought cookies, he's a gigantic jerk for waking me up and dragging me to the library at fuck'o'clock in the morning." Sabo turned his deadpanned glare on Luffy, who was now curiously watching Sabo, hovering just above the table. Ace had to plaster both his hands over his mouth to stifle the loud laughter that would have otherwise occurred. "I have an exam tomorrow and-"

Sabo paused for a moment, before he leapt backwards, eyes wide and hand pressed to his heart, _"Holy fucking shit, WHAT THE FUCK?"_

Ace half cackled, fully amused by his brother's reaction to Luffy, and he felt a grin on his features. "I _told _you!" He shouted quietly, voice low to respect that fact that, well – it _was _ three am. "Ghost. Library. Wants pizza."

"I'm Luffy!" Luffy said cheerily, waving at the two of them and pulling his legs up so he could sit cross-legged, now completely floating in the air. At least Ace knew that Sabo wouldn't be able to mistake Luffy for anything other than something supernatural; Luffy was flying, for one, and the bookshelf behind him was faintly visible through his opaque form, for another.

Ace saw Sabo swallow, rapidly blinking, and he patted Sabo on the back in sympathy, remembering how _he'd _first reacted when Luffy popped up in front of him in the library.

"So...," Sabo started, forcing his hand from his heart back to his side, "Are you-?"

"Dead? Yep! I got run over by a truck!"

Sabo's face furrowed in worry and concern over the complete lack of care in the boy's voice, but Luffy quite happily stated this often; over time Ace had become desensitized to the declaration. "A...truck?" Sabo asked cautiously, and Luffy nodded, fringe flopping into his face before he combed it away.

"Uh-huh. It was a big truck. Chucked my hat away when I got hit, and I've been trying to look for it for _ages_ now, but I can't find it." Luffy pouted, his lashes fluttering into a pretty much perfect pair of puppy dog eyes, and Ace saw Sabo almost reel.

Then again, he could feel his cheeks heat into what was probably a furious red, so he probably wasn't one to talk. Luffy had the most ridiculously effective pair of puppy dog eyes he'd ever seen, and they'd quite effectively left him completely and utterly useless when Luffy wanted something.

At least he had someone to help him on his quest to find Luffy's hat; now that he'd introduced Luffy and Sabo to each other, Luffy would probably win his brother over in the next hour and get _him_ to promise to find Luffy's hat too. Ace'd been looking for it on and off for a couple of weeks, and trying to convince his brother for the same amount of time that there really _was _a ghost trapped in the library.

It certainly didn't make for easy studying, that was certain. Luffy just seemed to be able to steal his concentration without even trying, and before Ace knew it, he'd have been talking to the ghost for over two or three hours, neglecting his assignment in favour of delightedly trading stories with Luffy over their slightly crazy childhoods.

When Luffy had told him that his hat was probably the only thing keeping him stuck, Ace had valiantly promised Luffy he'd find it, no matter how long it took him; he'd promised that he'd help Luffy find his way on to the next life.

However, somewhere along the line, he'd found himself not wanting to find Luffy's hat. He found himself wanting to keep Luffy in the library, so that he could see the cheery ghost boy whenever he wanted. The thought of Luffy leaving made a rock rest in his stomach, and his throat close up.

Still, to go back on his promise made a sick twist curl in his gut, disgust at himself a heavy weight he couldn't work against, and to convince himself to actually _find _the hat, he'd decided to get Sabo to help him. On top of Sabo being an awesome motivator when it came to Ace and doing jobs (mainly because Sabo knew a _lot _of embarrassing stories about Ace and his narcolepsy,) Sabo also had the added bonus of somehow having freaky finding powers, discerning any secrets or easily finding anything Ace really _really _wanted to keep hidden.

He knew that if he'd tried to keep Luffy a secret, Sabo'd probably have figured out Luffy and the whole 'ghost in the library' thing much faster. Of course, somehow telling the truth meant that Sabo was completely useless. Ace was filing that away for future reference when it came to pulling the wool over his brother's eyes.

"Ace?" Luffy asked, snapping his fingers in front of his face, and Ace jumped both at the loud sound and at their sudden close proximity. He could see Luffy's eyelashes, dark black like the colour of his hair, and Luffy's wide, open eyes. Once again he felt his face flush, and he edged away quickly, offering Luffy an awkward grin to try and disguise how much his heart was currently racing.

"Yeah Lufe?"

Luffy grinned at him, nose wrinkling in a ridiculously cute way, and settled back till he was floating cross legged again. "You were all spacey and drifty!" He tutted, giving Ace a faux serious glare, "Were you even listening?"

"Y-yeah!" Ace blustered, crossing his arms firmly, "'Course I was!"

Luffy snorted, rolling over in the air as easily as if he were underwater, and he arched his back till his feet hung over his head, resting his head on the palm of his hands as he watched Ace. "Were not."

"Were too!"

"Were _not!_"

"Were too!"

"Oy," groused Sabo, stepping between them and giving the two of them glares. "Can you not? I'm way too tired for this shit."

At least he had the grace to look sheepish; Luffy just grinned unabashedly at Sabo, doing funny fluttery things to Ace's stomach that he firmly tried to order his body to stop.

Sabo sighed heavily, mouth stretching into a jaw-cracking yawn, and he eyed Ace, practically glaring the message, 'we are going to go to sleep now.'

Ace would have pouted, had he not known how foul Sabo could actually get when kept from sleep. Nights when assignments went late into the night were hell the next morning, and Ace had learned to make coffee and then evacuate away from the easily angered zombie that replaced his brother after those nights. Instead, he sighed, and cast Luffy a small, apologetic smile. "Sorry Luffy, we gotta go. Sabo needs to get to sleep, and so do I."

Luffy pouted again, trying to throw another pair of puppy dog eyes at them to encourage them to stay, but Ace very firmly kept his gaze to Luffy's left, avoiding the pout.

"We'll be back tomorrow, Luffy." Sabo assured, leaving Ace to grin at his sideways but nonetheless effective 'get brother to like Luffy' victory, "And we'll work on finding your hat, too."

Luffy gave a sulky little whine, but finally acquitted, zipping to Ace and giving him an airy and warm hug that felt more like a comforting breeze than it did hug. Still, Ace couldn't complain, just closing his eyes and feeling the breeze that Luffy had following after him brush his hair. He felt a smile twitch up his lips, and sighed ruefully, stepping towards the door and waving.

The two of them left, carefully passing through the courtyard again on their way to the dorm. The night was silent bar the wind through the trees and the faint call of an owl somewhere far away, until Sabo gave a quiet cough.

"So...," Sabo started carefully, glancing ahead, but then flicking his gaze to Ace and grinning sharkily, "You have a crush on a _ghost._" As Ace spluttered and firmly tried to deny it, a thought finally occurred to Sabo and he stopped, staring at Ace with a furrowed brow and a look of concerned realisation on his face. "Wait, _wait. _Does this count as necrophilia?"


End file.
